La Jour de l'Independence

Sunday, April 4th (Easter Sunday) was the 50th anniversary of Senegalese independence from France. Naturally, the entire weekend was one big celebration. Saturday was the inauguration of La Monument de la Renaissance Africaine. This is a giant statue that can be seen from most places in Dakar. I have a perfect view of it from my roof, even though I live really far away from it. This statue has been really controversial. First, it is meant to represent Senegal and Africa. This is problematic because it depicts a man, woman, and child who are not wearing very much clothing. This has been really upsetting to the mostly Muslim population in Senegal. People here dress cery conservatively. Girls generally wear floor length skirts and dresses, and certainly nothing that is cut above the knee. Another point of outrage with this monument is the insanely high cost to build it. President Abdoulaye Wade spent billions of dollars building this huge, unsightly statue, when roads need to be fixed, schools need more funding, and people need to be fed. It would be one thing if the billions of dollars went to Senegalese workers, since there is a severe job shortage in this country. However, the money mostly went to North Koreans, who engineered and built the statue. Also, Wade is collecting a percentage of any money made by the statue for himself, claiming that he designed it.

So, due to the serious controversy surrounding the statue, I was shocked to see so many people out in support of its inauguration. The streets and hills around the statue were packed! Roads were blocked off so that hoards of people dressed in outfits made of this ridiculous fabric with Wade's face and pictures of the statue all over it could gather to watch the speeches. People were wearing t-shirts commemorating the event, and important leaders from all over the world, including Jesse Jackson, were in attendance. I sat up on a hill with two of my friends, next to a beautiful baobab tree, and just watched. I couldn't comprehend how so many people were happy about this statue. In the days leading up to the event, I talked with taxi drivers, my family, students, and random people on the street about their thoughts on the statue. Not one of them supported it. Later, I found out that many of the people who were out cheering for the statue had been paid to be there.

After a few hours of madness, I headed home to get ready for the evening. That night, there was an Independence Day party in Ouakam, one the neighborhoods in Dakar. There was lots of dancing, and most people from school were there. The whole night was a lot of fun until, at about 5 am, a man came up to my friend Jenna and me and started yelling at us in English. He was chastizing us for being white people in Africa, repeatedly telling is how ugly we were because we were white and that we were only in Senegal to find black men. This is not a sentiment that I have often encountered here. Most men respond very positively to white women, telling us how badly they want a white wife. I was so upset by this man, who I had never met before, yelling at me two inches from my face. Jenna eventually convinced me to walk away. I can understand why he might feel like that. A lot of rich, older, French women come to Senegal in search of attractive, young, Senegalese men. However, for him to assume that I am here because of some devious motivation really offended me. Not to mention, no one likes being called ugly by strangers.

The next day was actual Independence Day. My program took us to Stade Leopold Sedar Senghor, a large stadium in Dakar, to see a traditional wrestling match between Mike Tyson (a Senegalese man who has taken on Tyson's name and wears and American flag) and Yekini. This was a huge match that had been advertised on TV for months leading up to it. It was a rematch between Tyson and Yekini. In the parking lot while we were waiting in line, my friends and I bought whistles for 100 CFA (roughly 20 cents) and t-shirts for 1000 CFA (about $2.00). My t-shirt supported Tyson, who was making his comeback to wrestling that day. CIEE had bought us the expensive seats, which cost $10, and we got to sit in the first row. As usual, there was more dancing than wrestling. Each wrestler has a crew, and they dance together before the match. Unfortunately, Tyson lost the match. But it's okay, because Akon was there! Since he is Senegalese, Akon comes to Independence Day in Senegal every year. He drove around the stadium waving to the crowd before taking his seat to watch the match.

The stadium was crazy once the match ended. There was lots of yelling and cheering, and people started jumping from the crowd down onto the field. This is especially dangerous when the security, who are all military and police, have very large guns and aren't afraid to use their night sticks. We left before anyone got seriously hurt, but I did see the police going after a few people with their night sticks.

Monday classes were cancelled in celebration of Easter, so my friend Katie came over and we dyed Easter eggs! My mom had sent me an egg dying kit in a care package, and it was really nice to celebrate Easter with an American tradition. My Senegalese family did not understand what we were doing at all. We tried, and failed, to explain this bizarre Easter tradition. Eventually, my family gave up trying to understand and were just happy to eat hard-boiled eggs and play with the stickers. Explaining these sort of cultural things gets really tricky when you can only speak French.